Xen users - Dec 2006 - howto give DomU the pcmcia wlan card from Dom0 ?

hi list members,
my goal is to make one of my DomU''s act as a wireless accesspoint...
So, i
need it to have access to the pcmcia wlan card attached to dom0. But how ?
when i give the pci=[] option to the domU config file its shows up with
lspci but i cant use it... (on debian with module-assistent get rt2x00 in de
DomU)

Is it possible or would it be better to use a more direct interface like an
usb-wlan card instead of the pcmcia card.. ?


_______________________________________________
Xen-users mailing list
Xen-users@lists.xensource.com
http://lists.xensource.com/xen-users

harm wrote:
> hi list members,
> my goal is to make one of my DomU''s act as a wireless
accesspoint...
> So, i need it to have access to the pcmcia wlan card attached to dom0. 
> But how ?
> when i give the pci=[] option to the domU config file its shows up 
> with lspci but i cant use it... (on debian with module-assistent get 
> rt2x00 in de DomU)
>
> Is it possible or would it be better to use a more direct interface 
> like an usb-wlan card instead of the pcmcia card.. ?
Umm. Given the cheapness of such hardware, why are you bothering? Seriously?

_______________________________________________
Xen-users mailing list
Xen-users@lists.xensource.com
http://lists.xensource.com/xen-users

Nico Kadel-Garcia wrote:
>harm wrote:
>> hi list members,
>> my goal is to make one of my DomU''s act as a wireless
accesspoint...
>[...]
>Umm. Given the cheapness of such hardware, why are you bothering?
Seriously?

Jeez, lame answer.  I can think of various reasons one might not want
another box hanging around.  PCMCIA means mobile, for one.  I''ve posted
occasional questions to mailing lists, and when I get this kind of lame
answer from someone who thinks he knows better, others seem not to read the
post anymore, thinking it''s already been answered.  Better just not to
answer than to reply with a post including NO helpful information.

That said, I don''t know the right answer either.  Have you tried
installing
the module manually to see if the card is recognized?

Your USB idea may have two problems:  One, you can''t currently assign a
single USB device to a DomU.  You would have to use pciback to give the DomU
the whole USB controller.  Two, last I checked a few months ago, USB Wifi
cards couldn''t be used with the hostap driver because of USB-specific
timing
issues.  I''d try to get the PCMCIA card working.

	John



_______________________________________________
Xen-users mailing list
Xen-users@lists.xensource.com
http://lists.xensource.com/xen-users

John Morris wrote:
> Nico Kadel-Garcia wrote:
>   
>> harm wrote:
>>     
>>> hi list members,
>>> my goal is to make one of my DomU''s act as a wireless
accesspoint...
>>>       
>> [...]
>> Umm. Given the cheapness of such hardware, why are you bothering?
>>     
> Seriously?
>
> Jeez, lame answer.  I can think of various reasons one might not want
> another box hanging around.  PCMCIA means mobile, for one.  I''ve
posted
> occasional questions to mailing lists, and when I get this kind of lame
> answer from someone who thinks he knows better, others seem not to read the
> post anymore, thinking it''s already been answered.  Better just
not to
> answer than to reply with a post including NO helpful information.
>   
Calm down. It''s a serious question. Given that Xen is good for some 
things, and I use it for some of those, the adventures of going through 
the iptables adventures to get that working, and relying on the Dom0 
hardware as a single point of failure seem excessively painful. If 
there''s a good reason to do so, I''d love to hear it.

Also, given such a desire and the routing/firewall adventures possible, 
which still lack good documentation, I''d encourage the original poster 
to consider if they want to have this adventure or be the one to write 
it up. Given the difficulties especially with USB devices and the 
firewall issues, I wouldn''t want to take that on as a newbie.
> That said, I don''t know the right answer either.  Have you tried
installing
> the module manually to see if the card is recognized?
>
> Your USB idea may have two problems:  One, you can''t currently
assign a
> single USB device to a DomU.  You would have to use pciback to give the
DomU
> the whole USB controller.  Two, last I checked a few months ago, USB Wifi
> cards couldn''t be used with the hostap driver because of
USB-specific timing
> issues.  I''d try to get the PCMCIA card working.
>
> 	John
>   
Perhaps I was too dismissive: if it''s just for the fun, cool, and good 
luck with getting the PCMCIA or USB integrated.

_______________________________________________
Xen-users mailing list
Xen-users@lists.xensource.com
http://lists.xensource.com/xen-users

Quoting harm <harmweites@gmail.com>:
> my goal is to make one of my DomU''s act as a wireless
accesspoint... So, i
> need it to have access to the pcmcia wlan card attached to dom0. But how ?
> when i give the pci=[] option to the domU config file its shows up with
> lspci but i cant use it... (on debian with module-assistent get rt2x00 in
de
> DomU)
I had a rt2500 card (PCI version) running for a while in a Ubuntu domU.
As an accesspoint it would only work in ad-hoc mode with WEP though (no
managed mode, no WPA).

I''m not familiar with module-assistent, I build my dom0/domU kernels
from source, with the rt2500 driver from http://rt2x00.serialmonkey.com/

Did you exclude the pci device from dom0, in other words, do you have
"pciback.hide=(pci number)" in your /boot/grub/menu.lst?

Also, what _exactly_ doesn''t work? When you execute `modprobe rt2500`,
what does it say (on screen and/or in /var/log/syslog)?

Basically, from your description the problem could be in:
  1. Xen not properly exporting the PCMCIA device
  2. something wrong with the kernel module in domU
  3. improper configuration of the card in /etc/Wireless/RT2500STA

Regards, Peter

_______________________________________________
Xen-users mailing list
Xen-users@lists.xensource.com
http://lists.xensource.com/xen-users

On 12/30/06, harm <harmweites@gmail.com> wrote:
> hi list members,
> my goal is to make one of my DomU''s act as a wireless
accesspoint... So, i
> need it to have access to the pcmcia wlan card attached to dom0. But how ?
> when i give the pci=[] option to the domU config file its shows up with
> lspci but i cant use it... (on debian with module-assistent get rt2x00 in
de
> DomU)
OK. Lost me here. PCI is unrelated to PCMCIA (PC Card), so exactly
what did you pciback.hide?
> Is it possible or would it be better to use a more direct interface like an
> usb-wlan card instead of the pcmcia card.. ?
Is this an HVM thing?
Sorry...

jerry

_______________________________________________
Xen-users mailing list
Xen-users@lists.xensource.com
http://lists.xensource.com/xen-users

Jerry Amundson wrote:
> On 12/30/06, harm <harmweites@gmail.com> wrote:
>> hi list members,
>> my goal is to make one of my DomU''s act as a wireless
accesspoint...
>> So, i
>> need it to have access to the pcmcia wlan card attached to dom0. But
>> how ?
>> when i give the pci=[] option to the domU config file its shows up with
>> lspci but i cant use it... (on debian with module-assistent get rt2x00
>> in de
>> DomU)
> 
> OK. Lost me here. PCI is unrelated to PCMCIA (PC Card), so exactly
> what did you pciback.hide?
The PCMCIA bridge sits on the PCI bus.
>> Is it possible or would it be better to use a more direct interface
>> like an
>> usb-wlan card instead of the pcmcia card.. ?
> 
> Is this an HVM thing?
> Sorry...
USB would probably be better, for now.

-- 
Christopher G. Stach II


_______________________________________________
Xen-users mailing list
Xen-users@lists.xensource.com
http://lists.xensource.com/xen-users

On 12/31/06, Christopher G. Stach II <cgs@ldsys.net>
wrote:
> The PCMCIA bridge sits on the PCI bus.
Fascinating!!
So..
[root@pine ~]# lspci
[snip]
02:01.0 CardBus bridge: Texas Instruments PCI1420
02:01.1 CardBus bridge: Texas Instruments PCI1420
and the like...??
Same system has these: (older system does not...)
00:1d.0 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801CA/CAM USB (Hub #1) (rev 01)
00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801 Mobile PCI Bridge (rev 41)
Hmm, I may play with this...
> >> Is it possible or would it be better to use a more direct
interface
> >> like an
> >> usb-wlan card instead of the pcmcia card.. ?
> >
> > Is this an HVM thing?
> > Sorry...
>
> USB would probably be better, for now.
Sure, I see pro/con of that now too.

Thanks,
jerry

_______________________________________________
Xen-users mailing list
Xen-users@lists.xensource.com
http://lists.xensource.com/xen-users